134 
LOCUST. 
fine when they begin to fly; and experience has 
taught us here in Transylvania, that it would have 
been of great service to have diligently sought 
out the places where the females lodged; for no- 
thing was more easy than carefully to visit those 
places in March and April, and to destroy their 
eggs or little Avorms with sticks or briars; or if 
they w’ere not to be beat out of the bushes, dung- 
hills, or heaps of straw, to set fire to them; and 
this method Avould have been very easy, conveni- 
ent, and successful, as it has been in other places; 
but in the summer, when they have marched out 
of their spring-quarters, and have invaded the corn- 
fields, &c. it is almost impossible to extirpate them 
without thoroughly threshing the whole piece of 
land that harbours them with sticks or flails; and 
thus crushing the locust with the produce of the 
land. Finally, when the corn is ripe or nearly so, 
we have found, to our great loss, that there is no 
other method of getting rid of them, or even of 
diminishing their numbers, but to surround the 
piece of ground with a multitude of people, who 
might fright them' away with bells, brass vessels, 
and all other sorts of noise. But even this method 
will not succeed till the sun is pretty high, so as 
to dry the corn from the dew; for otherwise they 
will either stick to the stalks, or lie hid pnder the 
grass; but Avhen they happen to be driven to a 
waste piece of ground, they are to be beat with 
sticks or briars; and if they gather together in 
heaps, straw or litter may be thrown over them 
and set on fire. Now this method seems rather 
